Inside Facebook

We’ve heard a lot of people say the iPhone’s built-in support for YouTube video uploading is going to make a huge impact on the number of people posting videos online. That number could grow even more now that Facebook’s upcoming Facebook for iPhone 3.0 app is going to include video uploads - especially amongst people who want to easily post their videos online for friends and family to see, but not the general public.

Joe Hewitt, the lead engineer on Facebook’s iPhone app, says, “3GS video uploading for the Facebook iPhone app is a go — didn’t plan to include it in the 3.0 update, but it was really easy to code.”

Developers and marketers should prepare for many more user-generated videos shuffling around the Facebook ecosystem in the coming months.

In addition to including video uploads for iPhone 3GS users, Facebook for iPhone 3.0 will include the “new” News Feed, Events Likes, Notes, Pages, a new home page, and a variety of other features. However, Push Notifications, which are in high demand, will be included in Version 3.1 later this summer, Hewitt says. A release date has not been announced.

Facebook’s iPhone application is one of the most popular iPhone apps overall - nearly 25% of all iPhone owners use it according to Joe Hewitt, lead engineer for Facebook’s iPhone application. Today, Hewitt shared some more details on the upcoming version 3.0 of the Facebook iPhone app.

What will be coming in the new version?

1. The “new” News Feed
2. Like
3. Events (including the ability to RSVP)
4. Notes
5. Pages
6. Create new photo albums
7. Upload photos to any album
8. Zoom into photos
9. Easier photo tagging
10. Profile Pictures albums
11. A new home screen for easy access to all your stuff, search, and notifications
12. Add your favorite profiles and pages to the home screen
13. Better Notifications (they link to the comments so you can reply)
14. Quickly call or text people right from the Friends page
15. Messages you are typing will be restored if you quit or are interrupted by a phone call

The new home screen will definitely make for a friendlier user experience, especially with the addition of Events, Notes, Pages, and photo albums. The addition of the Pages feature means that brands with Facebook Pages will have increased visibility when users are on the go.

While Hewitt said he didn’t know when the app will be submitted to Apple, it is about “98% done.” However, Push Notifications, which are in high demand, will be included in Version 3.1 later this summer, Hewitt says.

Purchase this report The Facebook Marketing Bible - Current Edition Buy PDF: $49 USD OR Buy PDF + 1 Year of Free Monthly Updates: $149 USD

The newly revised, expanded, and hot-off-the-press Facebook Marketing Bible: 40+ Ways to Market Your Brand, Company, Product, or Service Inside Facebook - July 2009 Edition is now available!

The Facebook Marketing Bible has been purchased by thousands of agencies, marketers, social application developers, entrepreneurs, and educators, and is the leading resource on Facebook marketing today. It is also available in French, Spanish, and Italian. (A special edition for agencies and big brands is also available.)

The densely-packed Facebook Marketing Bible contains four detailed sections: Tools for Guerilla Marketers, Tools for Advertisers, Tools for Application Developers, and Tools for Webmasters. Each part outlines the best available channels and strategies for reaching your audience inside Facebook. Please see the full table of contents below.

In addition, Inside Facebook is happy to announce that through July 31st all customers who purchase the Facebook Marketing Bible will also receive a free $25 Facebook Ads advertising credit, courtesy of Facebook (see terms).

The July 2009 edition includes updates on the following topics:

• The latest updates on Facebook Pages (public profiles), including the vanity URL landrush and rule changes for generic Facebook Pages. We’ve broken down all the new elements piece by piece and offered detailed and specific advice for marketers hoping to reach more users inside Facebook than ever before - including details on why marketers should choose Facebook Pages over Facebook Groups, new updates to Facebook’s new Insights dashboard, and new rules for administrators of generic Facebook Pages. See the table of contents below for more details.
• The latest details on Facebook’s new “Pay with Facebook” virtual currency payment program for application developers. Find out the latest on what Facebook’s new payment program means for the future of virtual currency payments on Facebook (and Facebook revenues) - including Facebook’s latest international currency efforts.
• The latest details on Facebook’s new “Open Stream” API and what it means for marketers, publishers, and developers. With the new Open Stream API, Facebook has released the power of the Facebook stream to live anywhere developers can put it - including publisher websites, desktop applications, and mobile phones. Find out exactly what you can do with the new Open Stream, and what it means for the future of the Facebook Platform.
• The latest tools for webmasters to drive more traffic to their site and build more social context through Facebook Connect and Facebook Share. With Facebook Connect and Facebook Share, publishers have new opportunities for both enriching their sites with deeply social features and leveraging Facebook’s powerful feed system for driving traffic to their site. Get new details on metrics early Facebook Connect partners are seeing, and learn how to optimize your Facebook Share integration.
• New tools for advertisers to target their Facebook Ads better than ever before. With enhanced Facebook  targeting tools, advertisers now have the ability to reach their target audiences in much more powerful ways. Learn how to use these new tools to get the most out of your performance marketing dollars. Plus, check out ways Facebook is experimenting with virtual currency gifting and branded virtual gifts.
• Plus, more updates on Facebook’s “Live Stream” widget for live events on your website or Facebook Page, recent rule changes for Facebook Platform ad networks, and more.

Purchase this report The Facebook Marketing Bible - Current Edition Buy PDF: $49 USD OR Buy PDF + 1 Year of Free Monthly Updates: $149 USD

For those interested in learning more, click the purchase link above. The price is $49, or $149 with 12 months of free updates emailed directly to your inbox. As always, please make suggestions if you’d like to see more attention paid to any topic!

Table of Contents

Introduction

I. Tools for Guerilla Marketers

1. Profile Page

2. Pages / Public Profiles

• “Facebook Pages 2.0″
  • The New Wall Tab - Making Pages More Dynamic and Viral
  • Status Updates - Now for Pages, Too
  • Application Boxes - Changing Places
  • Tab Management - Choosing a Landing Page
  • Conclusion - Facebook Learning from Twitter, Pages Getting Better
• The Future of Sharing on Facebook: A Hybrid Public/Private Model
• Branded Virtual Gifts on Facebook Pages Opening New Doors for Viral Advertising
  
• Adding Custom Modules to Your Page
• Strategy: 4 Reasons Why Marketers Should Choose Facebook Pages Over Facebook Groups
• Strategy: I’ve just created a Page. How do I promote it?
• Group to Page Migration
• Guidelines for Promoting Pages Outside Facebook
• Official vs Unofficial Pages
• Pages and SEO
• Vanity URLs for Facebook Pages
• Which Celebrities are the Most Engaging on Facebook?
  
• Ways Page Owners Can Restrict Content for Underage Users
• How to Import Your Blog into Your Public Profile
• Page Invitations
• SMS Subscription Service for Pages
• Updating Facebook Page Status Via Text
• Getting Page Status Updates Via Text
  
• More Features Coming Soon
• Interesting Conversion Rate Metrics from Adobe Students Facebook Campaign
• Marketers Actively Bidding for Generic Facebook Pages
• Facebook Upgrades “Insights” Metrics Dashboard for Page Managers
• Facebook Disabling Stream Publishing for Generic Pages

3. Groups

• Strategy: What about spamming existing groups?
• SEO
  

4. Events

• Events API
• Events SEO
  

5. Notes and Photos

• Events API
• Events SEO
  

6. Messages

7. Status Updates

• Public Timeline Search

8. Share / Posted Items

9. Mini Feed and News Feed

10. Feed Importing

> Data: Latest US Facebook Age and Gender Demographics

> Recommended Strategies for Guerilla Marketers

II. Tools for Advertisers

11. Social Ads

• How Specialty Brands are Driving Sales on Facebook
  

12. Engagement Ads

• Summary of ad units available to Facebook advertisers
  1. Sponsorship Units on the New Facebook Home Page
     • Social Video Ads
     • Sponsored Virtual Gifts
     • Events Ads
     • Pages Ads
     • Polling Ads

  2. Advertising in the New Facebook News Feed
  3. Advertising on the Profile Page (and other pages)
     

13. Virtual Gifts

• The Future of Virtual Gifts on Facebook
• Scheduled & Holiday Virtual Gifts
• Facebook Testing Virtual Currency Gifting Program with Branded Virtual Gifts
  

14. Performance Ads

• Radius and Language Targeting
• Multiple Currency Support

15. Localization Opportunities

16. Integrated Opportunities

17. Facebook Platform Ad Networks

• List of Leading Facebook Platform Ad Networks
• What eCPMs do apps charge? Data from Facebook application developers
• Facebook Bans Platform Ad Networks for Deceptive Ads

18. Facebook Platform Application Sponsorships

• List of Leading Facebook Platform Sponsorship Resellers/Rep Firms
• Strategy: Why sponsor applications when I can sponsor Facebook itself?

19. Specialized Facebook Platform Advertising Service Providers

> Recommended Strategies for Advertisers

III. Tools for Application Developers

• Strategy: What is the Right Way to Market Through Facebook Applications?
• Strategy: Where do most new application users come from?

20. Profile Box

• 5 Things Developers May Not Know About the Facebook Redesign
• Profile Integration: Tour of New Facebook App Settings

21. Application Tabs

22. Application Info Sections

23. Designing Feed Stories

• Strategy: Designing High Performance Feed Items
• News Feed Optimization: Strategies and Techniques

24. Feeds 2.0

• Feed Forms
• Feed Clustering
• Action Links
• Policy Update: All Feed Story Calls to Action Must Now be Action Links
  

25. Feed Publisher

• Publishing in the Feed with Feed Comments

26. Requests / Invitations

• Policy Updates: Requiring Invites to Access Hidden Features, Offering Incentives for Invites, Ads on Profile Page Prohibited
• Strategy: Facebook’s Evolving Approach to Platform Governance
• Sending Application Invitations to Non-Facebook-Members

27. Chat Invitations

28. Facebook Notifications

• Chat Integration: Facebook Wants More Synchronous Notifications
• Policy Update: Bulk Pre-Selection Prohibited
• Facebook Turns On Instant Notifcation Popup Alerts
  
• Spammy Affiliate Marketers Sure to be Shut Down
  

29. Email Notifications

• Updates: Email’s Status as Core Application Marketing Channel in Doubt

30. Application Bookmarks

31. Application Directory & About Pages

• The Publisher Comes to Application About Pages
  

32. Status Updates & Donations

33. Demographic Restrictions

34. Verification and Certification

• Great Apps Program
• Application Verification

35. Translations

• Data: Stats on Facebook Apps Built for International Markets
• Tutorial: Translating Your Applications Using Facebook’s Crowd-sourced Translation Service

Purchase this report The Facebook Marketing Bible - Current Edition Buy PDF: $49 USD OR Buy PDF + 1 Year of Free Monthly Updates: $149 USD

36. Analytics Tools

• List of Leading Third-Party Facebook Platform Analytics Providers
• New Metrics for Developers with Facebook Profile Redesign

37. Search Engine Optimization

38. Mobile

• Facebook for iPhone and Connect for iPhone

39. Customer Service

40. Custom Tags

41. Open Stream

• What Does Facebook’s “Open Stream” Mean for Marketers?
  

42. Pay with Facebook

> Poll: Which viral channels do Facebook users hate most about apps?

> Recommended Strategies for Application Developers

IV. Tools for Webmasters

43. Facebook Connect

• Overview: Integrating Facebook Connect with Your Website
• Related: Google Friend Connect
• Examples: 40 Sites Live with Facebook Connect Today
• Variety of Facebook Connect Plugins Now Available for Blogs and Wikis
• Citysearch: Each Item Shared Through Facebook Connect Generates 30 Clicks
  

44. Comments Box Widget

45. Live Feed Widget

46. Facebook Share

Conclusion

Recommended Partners

Earlier this month, Busch Entertainment announced a cross-platform social media campaign intended to create greater awareness of Busch Entertainment’s many theme parks, including SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. The campaign, called The Worlds of Discovery Photo Adventure, challenges people to see if they can find five differences between a series of two almost-identical photos featuring SeaWorld and Bush Gardens sights. Users can play the game via a Facebook application, the Facebook Connect enabled site MyPhotoAdventure.com, and soon, the iPhone.

In Busch’s Facebook application, after each game is over, the app shows you a 10 second or so video that promotes theme park attractions before asking you if you want to publish your score to your Facebook profile. It also shows you your score, rankings, and top rankings. With the tickets you earn, you can then enter drawings. The current prize, for example, is a pair of tickets to any Worlds of Discovery park. Other social features include inviting your friends to play the game and a column on the right-hand side that displays other theme parks that you can become fans of.

Entering tickets to win the current drawing:

Joe Couceiro, CMO for Busch, says, “The power of the social and mobile web applications allow us to connect with current and prospective fans in a fresh and engaging way, while providing a fun, interactive experience that begins before they ever enter one of our parks.” The campaign was developed with Buddy Media.

Check out the top headlines and insights this week from Inside Social Games - tracking all the latest developments at the intersection of games and social platforms.

Monday, June 15

• 3 Social Games Startups Receive 2009 fbFunding
• Hover Kart is A New Racer from OMGPOP

Tuesday, June 16

• Making Music on the iPhone: Q&A with Jeff Smith of Smule
• Raptr Integrates Facebook Connect to Let Players Share More Gaming Info with Friends

Wednesday, June 17

• GameGround Raises $4.1 Million from Sequoia to Build Social Gaming Services
• PayByCash Introduces PayByCash Codes

Thursday, June 18

• Playdom Hires John Pleasants as New CEO, Expands with New Hires
• TweetMyGaming Compiles Video Game Conversations from Twitter in Real-Time

Friday, June 19

• Rumor: Electronic Arts Acquires Social Gaming Startup J2Play
• Offerpal Adds Customizable Virtual Currency Analytics Tools
• Spell Souls is a New Social Game from Simple Lifeforms - Step Aside Potter

This morning, as the fbFund REV summer incubator is still just getting under way, we bring our attention to 2009 fbFund winner NutshellMail, a website that updates you on what’s going on within your social networks in simple email digest form that can be delivered however frequently you’d like. We recently spoke with co-founders (or, in their words Co-Chief Nuts), David Lyman and Mark Schmulen, who shared with us why they started NutshellMail and their plans for the summer and beyond.

Inside Facebook: What problem does NutshellMail solve?

We enable our users to stay engaged in conversation and online activity without being distracted. With Facebook, it’s easy to get annoyed of email notifications and most of them remain unread. By consolidating activity on Facebook – and even Twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn - we deliver email digests to users when and how often they want them. As a consequence, our email open rates are high.

The focus of our service is taking information from Facebook and delivering it to people who don’t want to be logging onto Facebook.com all the time to check updates. These days, people use email clients not only to manage email messages, but also for calendaring, contacts, etc. Email has become the central hub for managing life, and we’re filling the hole of managing one’s social networks. The fact remains that email is still the killer app; and with NutshellMail, you can see friend requests, group invites, the News Feed stream, and even like or comment on content all through the context of email.

What types of Facebook users would find NutshellMail valuable?

We listened to users and friends and found that people want to be part of the Facebook conversation, but don’t want it to control their lives. NutshellMail allows you to manage communications on Facebook on your own terms, doesn’t create clutter, and delivers updates to you in a visual way. NutshellMail can also drive traffic back to Facebook’s site.

We’re bridging the gap between social networking activity and the email inbox. There are different types of users that NutshellMail appeals to, but it’s particularly useful for people who belong to multiple social networks, including Facebook, and have trouble staying on top of them. They want to stay highly engaged without getting flooded with too many email notifications. Over half of are users have Facebook linked to their NutshellMail accounts.

A NutshellMail email digest:

What is the process new users go through to get started on NutshellMail?

The first step is to select which social networks you want to integrate with. The second step is to determine how frequently you want to receive digests – from every hour to once a week. The last step is which enter the email address you would like the digest to be delivered to. You can integrate with Facebook directly through our Facebook app as well.

NutshellMail’s Facebook app:

Customizing how often you want email digests delivered to you:

What were you both doing prior to NutshellMail?

David: Mark and I went to UPenn together; and after graduating, I went to Houston to work for Accenture.

Mark: I worked in investment banking at JPMorgan. David and I went to middle school, high school, and college together, and our fathers grew up on the same street in Louisiana. Fast forward, and we’re still best friends and starting a company together. NutshellMail was conceived in college; and since then, we’ve put together a top-notch team.

What’s on the agenda for this summer’s incubator program?

This summer we’ll be working on making the NutshellMail experience more customizable and deciding which additional features to add. As of today, our Facebook implementation provides users with updates on new messages, friend requests, pokes, birthdays, group/event invitations (which you can then add to your calendar), the stream, and status updates.

Do you have plans to go mobile?

Facebook apps for iPhones and BlackBerries are limited in their capabilities, but we’re exploring the idea of using various mobile apps. Most financial institutions don’t permit their employees to access email or social networking sites at work; employees aren’t allowed to integrate personal email or third-party apps on their work phones, so many have purchased a second phone for this reason. This shows you how important it is for people to have access to personal email and social networks throughout the day.

For companies with strict Internet browsing rules, what has the reaction to your product been?

We’ve talked to companies and received positive feedback. One idea for a future revenue stream is building enterprise applications that give companies the means to maintain network security, while still giving employees the Facebook experience the want.

Thanks, David and Mark. Any final thoughts?

Not enough people know about us yet. We’re a free solution that makes life more productive, organized, and engaged.

Thanks to everyone who attended this morning’s Facebook Marketing Breakfast in San Francisco! It was great getting to meet many of you and to see several familiar faces.

The Facebook Marketing Breakfast is Inside Facebook’s half-day event series geared toward bringing together leading brands, Facebook’s own brand market solutions team, and experts from the space for an intimate conversation on best practices and realities of the Facebook marketing landscape.

Today’s event, hosted by Razorfish, included presentations by Trista Handisides, Manager of Brand Market Solutions at Facebook, Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst: Social Computing, Forrester, Michael Brito, Social Media Strategist, Intel, Kevin Barenblat, CEO, Context Optional, and Garrick Schmitt, Group Vice President of Experience Planning at Razorfish.

After the presentations, we concluded with a panel discussion including Betsy Burkett, Senior Manager of Digital Media at Mattel, Karl Long, Social Media Strategist at Nokia, Alyson Hyder, VP Digital Media, Razorfish, Keith Rabois, VP Strategy & Business Development, Slide, Katherine Bateman, VP Marketing, Buddy Media, and Justin Smith, Editor, Inside Facebook, followed by drinks on the Razorfish patio.

Below, check out some photos from this morning’s talks and great San Francisco weather (or view photos on Facebook). Video and presentations from this morning are also coming soon. You can also find tweets from the event at #fmbsf (thanks to @coryobrien for live tweeting many highlights from this morning). We look forward to seeing you at our next event!

Facebook Marketing Breakfast San Francisco - June 18, 2009

Garrick Schmitt, Group Vice President, Razorfish

Trista Handisides, Manager of Brand Market Solutions, Facebook

Kevin Barenblat, CEO, Context Optional

Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst: Social Computing, Forrester

Justin Smith, Editor, Inside Facebook
Keith Rabois, VP Business Development & Strategy, Slide
Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst: Social Computing, Forrester
Karl Long, Social Media Strategist, Nokia
Betsy Burkett, Senior Manager, Digital Media, Mattel
Alyson Hyder, VP Digital Media, Razorfish
Katherine Bateman, VP Marketing, Buddy Media

Boku, a mobile payments startup that has been operating in stealth mode for the past four months, is making two major announcements this morning: It has raised $13 million from venture capital firms Benchmark Capital, Index Ventures, and Khosla Ventures, and has acquired Mobillcash and Paymo, two of the leading global mobile payments companies.

This is big news in the mobile payments space. Through its acquisitions of Mobillcash and Paymo - two companies active in monetizing Facebook applications and social games - Boku instantly becomes one of the largest players in the space, with 170 carriers on board at launch across 53 countries reaching a potential 1.6 billion customers.

With Boku’s new global mobile payments service, consumers can purchase virtual goods and virtual currency via their mobile phones. Here’s a demo of how the service looks and works:

Based in San Francisco and with offices in Europe, Asia, and Latin America, the company is being led by CEO Mark Britto, who brings 20 years of experience at Amazon, Ingenio, and FirstUSA, and a management team that includes VP of General Counsel Javier Martell, VP of Engineering Erich Ringewald, VP of Business Development Kurt Davis, Senior Director of Risk Management Martine Niejadlik, VP of Product & Marketing Ron Hirson, and General Manger James Patmore, who together come from companies like AT&T Interactive, PayPal, Apple, FICO, Google, O2, Bank of America, and eBay.

Paying via Boku will be available on partner gaming site Puzzle Pirates, as well as other merchants:

We spent some time talking with VP of Product & Marketing Ron Hirson about the future of the mobile payments space, and he walked us through some notable statistics. Hirson says the future of online payments via mobile is being driven by 1) worldwide growth of social networks, virtual goods and games, 2) the popularity of mobile apps, and 3) the large number of unbanked consumers who have mobile phones but not credit cards or bank accounts. The holy grail for mobile payments, according to Hirson? Global coverage.

Other leading companies in the space, including Zong, Daopay, and Netsize, are also racing to establish presence in the largest markets around the world. Zong, who we spoke with in depth recently, says it is focused on building direct relationships with all major carriers in developed markets first and foremost, before moving into developing markets where mobile payment companies often work with many aggregators.

Related Stories:

• Payment Industry Perspectives: Q&A with Paymo CEO Paul McGuire
• Payment Industry Perspectives: Q&A with Zong CEO David Marcus

Continuing our interview series of the 2009 fbFund winners, we now turn our attention to Funji, an avatar-based social networking platform for the iPhone that allows you (in the form of your avatar) to decorate your room and interact with other Funji users by visiting their rooms … and soon, hugging and kissing them too. Funji Home Version 1.1 is available in the iPhone App Store with Version 1.2 coming soon. We recently spoke with Shinyoung Park, CEO of Funji, about the company’s vision for bridging Facebook with mobile social networking.

Shinyoung, congratulations on winning the 2009 fbFund competition. What is Funji?

Funji is an avatar-based mobile social networking platform. We just launched our iPhone app about two weeks ago and are going to extend the app to other smart phones, including Blackberry and Android at the end of this year. In the game, you decorate your avatar in a room environment and visit other people to see how they decorate their rooms. The idea is to trigger friendship when you’re on the go.

How does the mobile aspect make avatar-based social networking unique?

Through mobile devices, people can have more personal, intimate interactions relative to traditional web environments. Ultimately, we want to be at a point where users can more easily explore each other’s rooms, especially among close friends. Soon users will be able to invite their Facebook friends and see which of them are Funji users via Facebook Connect.

What are current features of the app, and what features are coming soon?

Currently, there are two basic interactions: add a friend and leave a message. We’re seeing that the status bubble next to each avatar that lets users update their Facebook status is being used as a trigger to talk to other people (e.g., Movie this weekend? I’m bored.), and promote blogs. Back to the status bubble, Facebook Connect allows you to update your status through Funji. It’s like a visual tweet. Users can also upload photos, save them in their Funji home folders, and publish them to their Walls.

In the future, a point system and ranking will allow users to engage more deeply with the app and unlock items to decorate their rooms. There will also be different types of interactions such as teasing your friends by shaking your phone and kissing your friends by kissing the screen. Funji is about doing good for other people. These features will come as we make rooms more interactive: users will also be able to hug each other, dance with each other, and chat with each other through bubbles. Text and location-based features are also on our list.

What inspired Funji?

When I was working in Korea, I saw that the avatar market was growing like crazy and that every teenager was trying to get a mobile phone. A lot of entrepreneurs want to make people happy, so what could I do? I wanted to bring Funji users closer to their friends and family by providing a channel to talk more openly. The mobile phone is the most intimate device. People can bring it wherever they go. In the beginning, I wanted to build a hardware that people could personalize, but when the iPhone came out and had every component we would need, it became clear that we would build an iPhone app.

What were you working on before Funji, and how did you make the transition?

I had my first start up in 1999, a baby/childcare education portal, which was sold to an education company in Korea. From 2002 to 2006, I worked with mobile apps at SK Telecom, and then moved to New York to do a Masters at NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications program. There, I developed Funji as my thesis. In July 2008, I moved to San Francisco and incorporated by company with some seed funding. Our team began building the first prototype, working remotely from Canada and Korea until I finally recruited them to our San Francisco office.

What geographic and demographic audience are you reaching?

We’re targeting the U.S. market, specifically teenagers and college students.

Now that Funji has been in the iTunes store, any surprises in terms of user behavior?

The Funji iPhone app in available in the iTunes store for free. We’re getting user feedback and working on making the app more stable. We were pleased to find that users were spending 10 minutes in the game, whereas most users spent one to two minutes in other apps. Users were spending more time decorating their spaces and visiting other people.Users have been publishing their rooms 1.6 times per session.

How will Funji leverage the virtual goods market?

The virtual goods business model is a good one. We plan to have in-app purchases and register all our virtual items in iTunes. We’ll be offering vacation, graduation, Christmas, etc. packages and feature limited and exclusive items, as well as allow users to generate their own items to sell. We may also introduce real-time virtual gifts and branded goods. With branded goods, users can choose to use their rooms as promotional tools. For example, Up could have a promotion in our app with its own characters and balloons.

As virtual goods take off, so is the payment industry. What are your thoughts around Apple’s payment strategy and future plans to integrate Facebook credits or mobile payments into your game?

In Korea, 30 percent is a lot. As the platform expands, Apple will cut less than 30 percent. As for Facebook credits, it’s possible. We want to allow as many payment systems as possible, and iTunes is the easiest for now. Eventually, mobile payments make sense too.

Facebook has just released a new update to the Facebook for BlackBerry application that offers several new features that make accessing Facebook even easier.  New version 1.6 improvements include more information on friends’ status updates, photo uploads, comments and wall posts, a better photo album interface, and support for several new languages.

With the update, you can now view your friends’ highlights, like status updates, new photos, comments and wall posts, directly from the application instead of having to switch over to the mobile site, which was the case with the previous version. In addition, one of the biggest improvements is the interface for viewing photos — instead of having to click on thumbnails, you now see pictures in a slideshow. Language support has been added for Thai, Indonesian, and Portuguese (European).

All of the popular items from the previous app have made their way into the new version. Among the carry over features are the ability to connect your Facebook friends with your BlackBerry Address Book. Birthday and event reminders will also be added to your Blackberry calender.

User reaction has been overwhelmingly positive so far. With nearly 6 million monthly active users, Facebook for BlackBerry has certainly become a big hit on these productivity oriented smartphones.